America’s Great White North neighbors don’t need to warm their fingers with hot coffee cups in the spring, but Dunkin’ Donuts gave Canadian coffee drinkers another reason to wrap their hands around a hot cup of Joe just the same this year.
Tapping into emerging-label technology, the company’s Canadian restaurants ran The Magic Coffee Ring game, which offered consumers various prizes including 17 grand-prize trips for two to any of the 40 countries in which Dunkin’ Donuts has stores (Value: $10,000 each).
Consumers who purchased a 10-oz. coffee received a colorful, logoed cardboard ring they slipped around the cup. The heat from the coffee activated a chemical in the label. A message appeared after a few moments revealing if the consumer was a winner.
“This is the first time technology like this had been used for a promotion in Canada’s food sector,” says Jean-Francois Giguere, promotions director at Montreal agency PALM Publicite Marketing, which handled.
Other instant-win prizes included Compaq computers, mountain bikes, and more than 500,000 Dunkin’ Donuts food giveaways. Odds of winning were one in three. More than one million rings were produced and distributed in participating Dunkin’ Donuts outlets in Quebec during a five-week effort.
The thermochromic ink was produced by CCL Label, Etobicoke, Ontario. (The company’s U.S. operation is based in Rosemont, IL.) Printing, die-cutting, and label application were handled by Hamilton Paper Box, Hamilton, Ontario.
Dunkin’ Donuts also sought to build loyalty and repeat purchases with a continuity overlay that invited consumers to look at the ring for one of the letters that comprise the word “Dunkin’.” Consumers collecting all six letters scored travel awards.
“Instead of giving them a `Sorry, you didn’t win’ message, we got consumers to feel like they were one step closer to actually winning. It was a real motivation [tool],” says Anne Douville, Dunkin’ Donuts’ Canadian marketing director. “This promotion has been a huge success. We wanted to do something different and unusual to help us stand out.”
Douville says the heavy travel theme was employed to give the brand a more global appearance in the eyes of Canadian consumers. “Dunkin’ Donuts shops are in 40 countries, and not many people in Quebec know that,” she says.
INTERNATIONAL COFFEE
Dunkin’ Donuts is a subsidiary of Allied Domecq International, which also owns the Baskin Robbins and Togo’s restaurant chains in Canada. Some 196 of the 210 Canadian Dunkin’ Donuts shops are located in Quebec. There are 4,900 stores worldwide.
The promotion also took a swipe at Canadian donut shop rival Tim Horton’s, which for years has run a coffee-oriented consumer promotion called Roll Down the Rim. The annual Horton’s initiative asks consumers to finish drinking their coffee, then roll down the lip of the cup to reveal a prize. Horton’s typically awards high-value prizes such as cars, bikes, and cash, along with free donuts.
“Both chains have loyal customers, but we know there are some brand-switchers out there. [The Magic Coffee Ring] promotion gave us the opportunity to get them into our shops,” says Douville.
The effort represented the first Dunkin’ Donuts consumer initiative focusing on coffee by itself. “They’ve never promoted coffee without donuts before. It’s a new strategy for the brand,” says PALM’s Patrice Attanasio.
The company supported the effort with P-O-P, TV ads, and radio spots depicting sitcom-style, slice-of-life moments that occur within a Quebec family, complete with audience reaction and laughter.
Dunkin’ Donuts celebrated its 50th anniversary in the U.S. this spring with a promotion asking customers to pick their favorite donut. (The Boston Kreme won with 27 percent of the vote.) An as-yet undetermined sweepstakes winner, selected from among the entrants, will win $50,000 and free donuts for life.
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